hazlgreen

My front end is out of alignment, pulling to the left. The Porsche mechanics at a dealership say their recommendation is to just drive me tires down to the end of their lifespan and then get an alignment when I purchase new tires.

Does that make sense?

I'm a bit tired of pulling on my steering wheel to stay on the road.

On top of all this, my driver side tire in front is really beginning to wear on the outer edge. The rest of the tire (and the other three) are in much better condition. I am wondering if I am going to be forced to replace the tires early because of this. I'd really like to get the alignment corrected, but not if it really is the wrong thing to do. I had never heard that correcting an alignment after some tire wear is not a good idea.

father2nate

Get the alignment - It's only about $50 and it should "last" for a while.

Jakerx

bad alignment makes tires wear unevenly and prematurely...when you purchase new tires, alignment isn't covered by the price of having somebody do mounting and balancing. there's no advantage to waiting until then unless having more worn tires is a good thing. if you're tires are worn, replace them. tires are probably the most important thing on your car. they're what keep to you on the road. when tires fail, and you're on the highway at 70 mph....well use your imagination from there. why speculate when you can get everything taken care of now and prevent possible harm and damage?

hazlgreen

Well, I agree with you that the tires are extremely important, but I don't know about replacing all of them now. The outer edge of the front driver side is wearing down. The rest of all the tires have lots of tread left on them.

It looks like I'm definitley getting an alignment, but I'm not certain about replacing all the tires right now.

Jakerx

well when the front driver side edge approached bald you should at least replace that tire (you might want to replace both fronts for an even feeling)

hazlgreen

Only $50 for an alignment? Is it really that cheap?

BruceWard

Depends on where you go. $90 at my local Sears, $45 at the local Goodyear dealer and probably $200 from a Porsche dealer.

I say never replace less than two tires and if you drive hard at all replace all four.

hazlgreen

Forgive the "snootiness" in this question, how many of you are comfortable with a local Sears doing an alignment on your cars? Just curious. Is there any reason I shouldn't take mine to them. Taking my car to them would be my preference, unless there is some clear reason to avoid them.

joseph mitro

wow, a porsche dealership that actually advised you to save your money!!

$50 for an alignment? i've never seen it. at least $100 for a good four-wheel alignment. if you autocross or DE or just "performance drive," then I would get the alignment. if it's all a street car, then i would save my money until new tires are needed.

hazlgreen

Well, the local Sears Automotive quoted me a price of $90. What do you think? Should I be afraid? Very Afraid?

I don't DE or autocross. I also don't want to have to be pulling my steering wheel to the right anymore...

father2nate

Sears is OK, they stand by thier work. If you're not happy, take it back. Just make sure you get a tech that has worked on Porsche before.

Mongo

You can't go wrong with Sears and they use the Hunter DSP machine which uses a laser-type aligning system for more accurate settings. I do reccommend getting new tires also like everyone else since its best to start out fresh. Let us know any updates when the time comes. Good luck to you

Dmitry S.

The problem right now is that since one tire is worn differently than the other, even if the alignment is perfect - the car will still pull.

The Porsche dealership advised you to wait until you get new tires so that if they did the alignment, you would not come back and complain that it still pulls to one side.

To fully fix the pulling problem, you will need to replace both front tires and get an alignment.

Dash01

I've aligned my 951 (and previously my Datsun Z cars) with a spool of thread and a bubble-type spirit level. Takes a few minutes and gets results as good as the laser machines used at tire shops. I last did this in August after installing new control arms, and the car tracks straight and true with the steering wheel dead center on a flat, level highway. Worried about instability even while driving to the tire shop for an expert job, I first tried this some years ago. However, when I got there they refused to charge me because they could make no improvement with their fancy laser machine.

Do the camber first, using a spirit level across the vertical centerline of each front wheel, with the upper wheel rim ~1"16" inboard, while you have a volunteer sitting in the driver's seat ~1/2 tank of gas in the car, to simulate normal weight.

Then, use the thread stretched taught across the wheel equator from the rear tires to the front tire, with leading side canted inboard ~1/16". You can sight along the thread to see the slight angle, or use a ~1/16" drill bit as an offset reference. Do one side, then the other, with volunteer sitting in driver seat holding the steering wheel @ dead center. Parking with front tires on level smooth driveway, with a couple of small sheets of wax paper under each front tire is helpful--prevents squirm of the tires and hysteresis.

hazlgreen

I'm wondering about picking up a new set (or at least two) of tires because of the probable remaining pull after straightening. We'll see...

I'm not up for doing my own alignment (well, not yet anyway).